RAMS & CPP for Property Refurbishment
What compliance documents you need for full refurbishments, HMO conversions, and property renovation — and how The Site Book handles it for you.
Written by Nicola Dobbie, Founder, The Site BookLast reviewed
TL;DR
- CPP: Required — CDM 2015 applies to every construction project; many full refurbs are also F10-notifiable.
- RAMS: Essential — every trade needs its own RAMS across strip-out, structural, MEP, and finishing phases.
- Key hazards: Asbestos in pre-2000 properties, structural instability during strip-out, and fire safety for HMO conversions.
What compliance do you need?
Full property refurbishments are complex projects involving multiple trades, extended timescales, and a wide range of hazards. Whether you're renovating a single property or converting a house into an HMO, CDM 2015 applies in full — and the project may be notifiable to the HSE.
Do you need a CPP?
Yes. A Construction Phase Plan is essential for refurbishment work. It should cover how you'll manage asbestos, coordinate multiple trades, maintain structural stability during alterations, and ensure fire safety throughout the works — especially for HMO conversions where fire safety is critical.
Do you need RAMS?
RAMS are essential for refurbishment projects. With multiple trades working across different phases — strip-out, structural, mechanical, electrical, and finishing trades — each activity needs its own risk assessment and method statement. The principal contractor should collect RAMS from every subcontractor.
Common hazards
- Asbestos — very common in pre-2000 properties (insulation, tiles, textured coatings)
- Structural instability during strip-out and alteration
- Working at height — stairwells, roofs, upper floors
- Lead paint in pre-1960s properties
- Electrical hazards from old or damaged wiring
- Dust from demolition, cutting, and sanding
- Manual handling across multiple trades
- Fire risk during works — especially in HMO conversions
- Coordination of multiple trades working simultaneously
How The Site Book handles it
Describe your project — "full refurbishment of Victorian terrace, converting to 4-bed HMO" — and The Site Book creates your RAMS and CPP automatically. It identifies refurbishment-specific hazards including asbestos, structural alterations, multi-trade coordination, and HMO fire safety requirements.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need RAMS for a full property refurbishment?
- Yes. Full refurbishments involve multiple trades and a wide range of hazards — from structural work and asbestos through to electrical and plumbing. RAMS are essential for managing the risks across all activities. Most clients, project managers, and building control officers will expect comprehensive RAMS.
- Is a refurbishment project notifiable to the HSE?
- A refurbishment is notifiable if it will last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers on site at any one time, or exceed 500 person-days. Many full refurbishments and HMO conversions will meet these thresholds. If notifiable, an F10 must be submitted to the HSE before work starts.
- What extra compliance is needed for HMO conversions?
- HMO conversions must meet additional fire safety requirements under the Housing Act 2004 and fire safety regulations. This includes fire doors, fire alarms, emergency lighting, and means of escape. Your CPP and RAMS should cover how these fire safety measures will be installed and tested during the refurbishment.
- How do I manage multiple trades on a refurbishment?
- Under CDM 2015, if there is more than one contractor on site, a principal contractor must be appointed to coordinate health and safety. The principal contractor produces the Construction Phase Plan and ensures all subcontractors provide RAMS. The Site Book makes it easy to create and manage documentation for each trade.
What's included at each tier
Starter
£0- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
Pro
£39/mo or £360/yr- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
Business
£199/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
Site Control
£675/site/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
- Permanent entrance QR: guest sign-in and contractor self-join
- CSCS credential capture, review and expiry alerts
- Digital induction gating before check-in
- Live people-on-site, attendance and audit-grade exports
- Single sign-on (SSO) with Okta or Microsoft Entra
- Public REST API with scoped account keys
- Signed real-time webhooks into your own systems
Running live sites with subcontractors? Site Control is the per-site enterprise tier above Business — entrance QR sign-in, CSCS checks, induction gating, live attendance and audit-grade exports. From £675/site per month, plus £5,000 setup.
Site Control
Per-site contractor access and CDM compliance for principal contractors running live sites.
From £675/site per month, plus £5,000 setup
- Per active site, with unlimited workers
- Permanent entrance QR: guest sign-in and contractor self-join
- CSCS credential capture, review and expiry alerts
- Digital induction gating before check-in
- Live people-on-site, attendance and audit-grade exports
- RFIs and version-specific document-review evidence
Where it helps and where it doesn't
Pros
- Asbestos-survey-required flag baked into pre-start checklist
- Structural alteration RAMS aligned to Management of HSW Regs
- Dust-from-stripping-out COSHH controls included
- Safe-working-alongside-occupants guidance in method statements
Cons
- Asbestos survey PDFs uploaded as attachments — we don't commission them
- No listed-building consent tracker
- Live-occupant welfare provision isn't auto-scheduled
Why The Site Book
- UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages on Business, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off, including optional 4-digit shared-link PIN evidence on Business, plus site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
- Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a natural-language brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - not a template library you hand-fill.
- Controlled document workflow without an enterprise contract: version history and a recorded issue confirmation before a document is shared with a client or downloaded in the app on every plan, re-sign on revision with superseded signatures preserved plus PCPP import, cert tracking and document checking from the £39/month Pro plan - and on Business, optional named-approver routing (a designated approver accepts or rejects each version, with recorded reasons, before it can be issued) plus client approve/reject/request-changes via share links.
- Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; project workers count as active portal users while assigned.
- Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group. Save a finished job as a reusable project template, or clone it, so the next job of the same shape starts from your own setup.
- COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
Get your refurbishment docs sorted
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